Washed Up
by Liz Hollow
Summary: After being abandoned by everyone Lyra knows and loves, she vanishes from the world. The one man who left her the most comes to find her, only to discover that she has undergone severe change. Lyra/Lance.


**Washed Up**

When I woke up, I found myself completely alone. I glanced around the dark room, sitting up and feeling the warm sheets of my bed around me. An unrestrained anger rose within me, and I pounded a hand down on my bed. The more I pounded, the more I hurt, the better I felt. But I couldn't get rid of the sense of abandonment. Nothing could get rid of that.

I couldn't remember going to sleep. I couldn't remember walking up the stairs to my room and getting into my bed. I could barely remember coming home. Had he just dropped me off to my mother and left? Or had he stuck around for a little while, talking to my mother until she offered him supper or tea, only to say no, that he had to go?

Either way, he still left me alone again. It wasn't the first time I had been abandoned by him, but it hurt me just the same. I knew it was wrong of me to expect him to stay, because he had a life—one that I was clearly not a part of—but I couldn't help but hope that he would be different than everyone else. I _wanted_ him to be different.

"Oh, honey, I am _so_ proud of you!" my mom said as I walked down the stairs, hoping to find him there. He wasn't. "I cannot believe you're the League Champion! It seems like just yesterday that you started walking, and now…" My mom smiled, hugging me. I didn't hug her back. She noticed. "Is there something wrong, honey?"

I just shrugged, not finding it necessary to explain myself to my mother, the only constant person in my life. She wouldn't understand my problem. But she did understand my expressions enough to know that I wasn't telling her something. Putting her hands on her hips, she gave me a stern look, not saying anything.

"I'm just tired, Mom!" I snapped, hoping that this would get her to stop staring at me like that. Her face relaxed, but she didn't take her hands off her hips. "It's been a really long day, and that nap wasn't very helpful. I can't even remember walking upstairs and getting into bed."

"Oh, well, you were so exhausted when Lance brought you home earlier that you just fell asleep on the couch while we were all talking. He brought you to your room, and I tucked you in. So, of course you wouldn't remember!" My mom smiled, as if this solved everything. "Lance is such a nice young man. And he said that you had been very helpful in Mahogany Town. He thinks very highly of you, Lyra."

I didn't respond. I didn't want to talk about Lance. He was the one who wasn't here, the one who had left me for a second time. The first time was in Mahogany Town. If I was so helpful, why did he just leave me standing there in the hideout like a moron? Why had he just walked away like it was no big deal? It _was_ to me.

"I found it here, but I don't have any need for it," he had told me, handing me the Hidden Machine Whirlpool. I had smiled, accepting it happily, feeling excited. But now that I thought about it, he was just giving it to me because he really _didn't_ need it. Wow, thanks, Lance, what a generous gift. I had since just tossed it.

"Lyra…" He turned away from me, and I had just stared, knowing what was coming next. I felt so suddenly hurt. "The journey to becoming the Pokémon Champion is long and difficult. Knowing that, will you keep going?"

I wished now that he had told me he was Champion. Because then I wouldn't have gone to Indigo Plateau. I wouldn't have battled him, and I wouldn't have won. I wouldn't have been left behind like that HM Whirlpool, giving away to someone else because he didn't _need_ it. But he hadn't told me, and here I was now, a fool.

"Lance…" I had just said in a soft, pleading tone. He misinterpreted my tone.

"I see." He took a step away from me, and I reached out, starting to say his name. He just shook his head, waving a hand at me. "No, you're right. If you would give up that easily, you would have never chased that dream in the first place." He didn't even glance back at me as he said, "I look forward to seeing you again!" He just took off, leaving me alone in the hideout.

If he looked forward to seeing me again, why couldn't he just stay? Sure, he had obligations, and sure, he had a career and a life. But that was the same old excuse. The same one that everyone silently used before they never returned.

And they wouldn't.

* * *

I understood exactly why Red would want to stay on top of Mt. Silver, and I understood why he wouldn't tell anyone about it. There was a sort of serene feel to the summit, the wind blowing through my hair, the chill flowing through my bones. It was like the whole world was around you, but you didn't have to be a part of it. You could just watch it and sit in silence.

So, I took Red's spot, following the ex-Champion's lead. Maybe it was fate that we would follow such similar paths. First, he defeated Team Rocket, and then I did. He disappeared, and so did I. And no one knew where I had gone, just as no one knew where Red was. Until someone came up and found me, I wasn't going back. I was too washed up to go anywhere.

The nurse at the Pokémon Center stationed at the base of the mountain was my only contact, and I refused to let her tell anyone where I was. She gave me my food and my water, letting me bathe and get warm, and she never told anyone. The calls I continued to receive on my PokéGear from my mother and anyone who cared were ignored, and the nurse didn't question it.

I really understood Red.

If no one would stay with me, if everyone just abandoned me, why did I have to stay? No one came to look for me. There was no new Champion coming to find me like I did for Red. Instead, I found solitude and silence on the mountain, feeling better than I had in years. I didn't have to think about everyone else for once.

Until someone _did_ come looking for me.

The occasional person would journey to the Pokémon Center at the base of Mt. Silver, but they meant nothing to me. I rarely thought anything of it. If I didn't get close to them, it wouldn't matter when they left. And it was uncommon that the person would stay long; they would try to climb Mt. Silver, fail, and return to wherever they came from.

I wouldn't stay for prolonged periods of time on top of the mountain. My Pokémon hated the cold, and personally, I wasn't too big a fan of it, either. But being alone was very therapeutic, very relaxing. I had heard of ceremonies where clans would send their members alone in the woods or wilderness for a few days with water as their only resource. They would just sit in silence, contemplating the meaning of life.

It seemed lonely to me. But if people were leaving me alone, anyway, then I figured I could make use of it. It worked for Red. I really admired him, wanted to emulate him. Then, he left, too. So, my time on the mountain was spent focusing on myself, and it worked well. I loved being by myself finally, and the nurse at the Pokémon Center was my only company.

But when I came back down the mountain this time, there was someone else at the Center—it wasn't some random person who I didn't care about. I knew him, loved him, had been abandoned by him. Having forgotten about that made it hurt even more when I saw him turn around and face me, the look of concern transforming into one of anger.

I tried to slip out the door, covering my face with my hat as just a reflex, like I did with every other person who came to the Center. But he was up and hurrying towards me before I got very far. He grabbed my wrist, spinning me around. He stared at me for a moment, looking so horribly mad, but I didn't blink. I stared at him with a blank face, expecting him to just walk away from me in disgust.

So, when he pulled me towards him, embracing me, I couldn't even react. I was too surprised to move, and he held me awkwardly for a moment before letting me go.

"Where have you been? Damn it, Lyra, what have you been doing all this time? No one knew where you were! Do you have any idea how long I've been looking for you? Do you have any idea how _far_ I've gone to find you?"

I knew all he was going to do was walk away, so I decided to save him the extra effort. I turned around, determined to leave, but he just grabbed my hand again. Stopping, I didn't turn around or look back at him. All I could do was say, "Lance," in a pathetically weak voice.

"Why did you leave?"

_Snap_.

Something just clicked in my brain, and I spun around, hands clenched. How could he even ask that? The hypocrite! Why did _I_ leave? Why didn't he ask himself that? Why was this turning out to be all about me when he was the one who kept going away? Every time he found me, every time we met, _he_ was the one who walked away. Every single time.

"Are you _shitting_ me?" I demanded, and his eyes grew wide at my cursing; I wasn't that innocent teenager anymore. I could feel my eyes welling up with tears, and I poked at his chest, so incredibly angry. "You left me _again_ and _again_—just like everybody else! Why wouldn't I leave when everyone kept abandoning me?"

"What?" Lance looked genuinely surprised, and I backed away, shaking my head. How could he not have realized? "Lyra, what are you talking about? I never left you. No one else did, either."

I turned around, throwing my hands up in the air. He was so damn oblivious. "You did. Mahogany Town: you gave me the HM05 and left. Indigo Plateau: you brought me home and left without even telling me. Dragon's Den: you and Clair both left me with Silver—and then he left me there, too. You just keep leaving and leaving, and then you just come back to leave me again. You never have the intention of staying. Just like my dad... Silver, Ethan, Steven, Red… Clair, Whitney… no one will stay."

Looking back at Lance, I could tell that this was all starting to resonate with him. He seemed embarrassed now, blushing like a fool. "My dad left when I was eight. He didn't tell my mother… or me. One morning I woke up, and he was gone. I waited outside every day after school for him to come back, and he never did." I paused, a whimper rising up my throat. "I don't even know if he's alive, but I sure as hell hope he isn't."

"Lyra!" Lance moved forward, grabbing my shoulders. "I'm sure he didn't mean to hurt you."

"Then why does everyone keep leaving me if they don't mean to hurt me?" I snapped, throwing his arms off my shoulders. "Silver disappeared. He used to meet me at the Elite Four to battle, and he stopped showing up. Ethan left to go to college. Steven—well, who knows where he is? Red climbed off the mountain and left me up here. Clair stopped wanted to battle. Whitney wouldn't answer my calls. And you…" I shrugged. "You just don't care."

Lance shook his head, crossing his arms and bringing the angry expression back to his face. "Why am I here if I don't care, Lyra?" _To leave again?_ I wanted to say. "People _do_ care about you, but you're too caught up in feeling abandoned that you don't consider those who want you. What about your mom? She hasn't heard from you in, what, three-and-a-half years? And what about me? Because I _do_ care, Lyra. I've gone to other regions looking for you. I've flown halfway around the world and back trying to find you because I never wanted _you_ to leave. And the only reason I kept walking away each of those times wasn't because I didn't care. It's because I did."

I rolled my eyes, though my heart was flip-flopping inside of me. "Right. Like, if you love something enough to let it go, it will always come back to you? Is that it?" I scoffed. "Yeah. I get it. You must really love me since you let me go so much. But guess what? I wasn't planning on coming back."

A different silence from the one I was used to followed this. This wasn't peaceful; it was awkward. I just shook my head, heading back to the entrance to the cave. I could go a few days without food on the mountain, and the snow provided enough water for me. I could hide out there for awhile. My guess was that Lance would just leave soon, anyway.

"Hey, come on. Will you wait a second? You're being completely unfair," Lance called, and I laughed, never breaking stride. "First of all, I'm really sorry that your dad did that to you. But you can't go around blaming everybody that walks away. Because, for your information, I never planned on leaving for long. I _always_ planned on coming back to you. Sure, Silver… maybe he did leave you. Red—maybe he did, too. But… you can't blame everyone."

I sighed, stopping and dropping my head. And in a soft voice, I said, "All I ever wanted was an explanation. A reason why they left. They owed me that much, and they didn't give me anything. I just wanted to know why."

The crunching of grass behind me made me wince, and when I felt Lance's presence close to me again, I couldn't turn around. I was embarrassed by his accusation of my blaming everyone. How was my anger and frustration towards everyone that left unfair? They never even told me why they left. Ethan had, perhaps, but still. Following Silver's abandonment of me, I couldn't help but be angry with Ethan.

"I left because I had obligations, a career… a life to live," Lance said, and I shuddered at the familiarity of this. Hadn't this been what everyone's excuse was? Sure, they never actually said it, but I could infer it. "And at first, that was enough to let me walk away from you. But _you_ kept finding your way back to me. Believe me, Lyra, it became really difficult to leave. And you were so young back then… I had to leave." He sighed. "You were the one who stopped coming back. So, I had to come find you."

I smiled weakly, turning around to face him with eyes that I knew betrayed me. "Lance, I know how this ends. It's very predictable. You'll kiss me, tell me that you want me to come back with you, promise that you won't leave me again. I'll go, only to find that tomorrow… you're not there."

He pondered this, looking like he agreed with me. Because that was exactly how this would end. He would convince me to return, get me to go find my mother, make me apologize to her. He would apologize to me, try to make it up to me, but he would be gone before I knew it. He did have obligations, especially if he had been putting them aside to find me. And now that I was found, what was stopping him from returning to those obligations?

"Well, that seems about right," he said, nodding in agreement with me. I pretended like I wasn't fazed by this, though my heart said otherwise. "But I think we need to rewrite that ending a little bit. What do you say I stay with you, instead?"

And in a swift movement, he bent down and kissed me. Just a simple peck on the lips, nothing prolonged, nothing passionate, but it was enough to win me over just the same.

"But…"

Lance smiled at me, staring at me with his bright eyes. "I'll leave when you tell me to."

Whether I was falling for his tricks or not, I couldn't tell. But his genuine smile and eyes told me that he wasn't going to be leaving anytime soon. And maybe he was right. Maybe I had been wrong, unfair… even selfish. If he was willing to stay, willing to break the cycle, he was worth it.

Maybe it was true that if you loved something enough to let it go, it would always come back to you.

Maybe.

But who really knows?

* * *

**Author's Note:** Phew. I just wanted to break up my Phasmatic updates with something else. I love Lyra/Lance… So much. I'll get back to writing Phasmatic tomorrow, but… I just really needed to write some good ol' Lyra/Lance.

Kind of angsty. But I hope you all like it! The ending is a little ambiguous, too. Make of it what you will. Lance couldn't completely change Lyra's heart in the course of a few minutes, so it seemed unrealistic for her to feel completely sure about going back with him. But… like I said, make of it what you will.

There was, like, a moment of heavy swearing. I don't like to swear. I really don't. But I felt it was most appropriate in that spot. So, yeah. I hope you don't mind! :D

And I really want to, like, read this aloud. No idea why. But it would be awesome to do.

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon or parts of Lance's speech in the beginning part.


End file.
